Great Britain Scoop  Cup in Spain

Team GB were thrilled with the result on Friday after winning the CSIO3* Nations Cup during the October (Sunshine) Tour held at Dehesa Montenmedio showground, Spain.

The Nations Cup team consisted of Joseph (Joe) Clayton riding Gentleman VH Veldhof; Alex Thompson riding Cathalina S; Karl Robins riding Equine America G Camille HBF and Matthew Sampson riding Geneve R. at

It was Joe Clayton’s first round which closed on 8 from two poles that ended him on the team’s discard score. The remaining GB combinations rode clear.

In the second round the team continued to impress but with three riders having jumped, they were sitting on an overall score of 10 points, which meant they needed to discard Joe Clayton’s unlucky second round score of 9 faults. Last rider in Great Britain’s Nations Cup team, Matt Sampson went into the arena, knowing he needed either a clear, or minimal time points for the team to take the top of the podium. This he did with a fabulous round, under great pressure. In the end he clocked up just one time fault.

With three team GB members jumping three rounds in each leg of the event, where not a pole was touched, they were the much deserved winners of the Nations Cup which was sponsored by Victoria beer. This is a great result for the British and comes just after their win in the Nations Challenge Cup in the Finals that were also held in Spain at the beginning of October.

Brazil took second place in the Nation’s Cup ending up with a overall score of 4 points, 2 from each round. The Brazilian chef d’equipe is Pedro Paulo Lacerda and he did a great job along with his team, made up of; Felipe Amaral riding Androide 3K who had two immaculate clears; Karina Johannpeter riding Escape-Adventure with just 2 time faults, one in each round and Matheus Correa with Zeusz who also had 2 time faults, one in each round. This was a great achievement again with not one pole touched between them, and they well deserved second place.

There was a tie for third place between Switzerland and Sweden with both countries ending up on an overall score of 9 points. At the beginning of the second round both these two teams and Ireland and Italy were neck and neck on 9 points. So it was all to play for and very clear that any faults accumulated in this second round were going to be decisive. After some exciting rounds it was clear that the Switzerland and Sweden were moving up the leaderboard as other teams clocked up faults.

In this second round of the Nations Cup, the first three riders from the Swiss team went clear in the time Barbara Schnieper with Quick Fire; Edouard Schmitz with Quno and Alain Jufer with Dante MM, meaning Niklaus Schurtenberger with Lireu did not need to jump again. The Swiss chef d’equipe was Mr Andy Kistler.

The Swedish rider Linda Heed with Laurien van Orshof went clear, but Alexander Zetterman and “Triton Hastak” had a few fences and it was left to the remaining two riders to go clear in order to stay in equal third place. Stepping up to the challenge was Antonia Pettersson riding Chaccatara with a clear in the time, followed by Wilma Hellström and Cicci BJN who also finished on zero. Their chef d’equipe is Mr Henrik Ankarcrona. These teams received their trophies from Sergio Ragel, who is the external relations manager of Victoria beers and from José Villalobos, who is their marketing manager.

Spain, who went in to the second round on a zero as one of the favourites to win, ended up in fifth place on a total of 13 faults. Their chef d’equipe was Carolo López Quesada and the team members were Manuel Fernández Saro with Jarlin de Torres; Santiago Núñez Riva with Valentino de Hus Z; Ismael García Roque with La Costa and Sergio Álvarez Moya with Malibu de Muze.

For the full Nations Cup results see results pdf

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Suzanne Ashton

Suzanne Ashton, Founder of Everything Horse (Est, 2012), has a BA Hons in Marketing Management and a Diploma in Equine Science. Suzanne has ridden and owned horses all her life and has twelve years of experience in marketing, writing, design, SEO, and website creation.